The moment Robert Jenrick insisted it was right for PM to avoid quarantine - ...

Boris Johnson's U-turn over his plan to avoid quarantine by using a daily testing pilot scheme will have caused many red faces in Government.

And none more so that that of Robert Jenrick, who was sent out this morning to tell the nation that the Prime Minister was right to avoid self-isolation.

The Communities Secretary was drafted in for the Sunday media round because Sajid Javid, who was meant to be on screen today, has Covid - an infection which kickstarted the entire furore.

Mr Jenrick faced questions from Birmingham about the PM and Chancellor Rishi Sunak's involvement in a pilot scheme that allows them to take daily lateral flow tests and skip quarantine if they come back negative.

He appeared on Sky at 8.30am and again on the BBC at 9.40am, finishing a lengthy interview with Andrew Marr at 10am before heading to Times Radio.

But less than an hour later, at 10.38am, No10 confirmed that Mr Johnson and the Chancellor had changed their mind and would be self-isolating for 10 days like so many other people across England. 

In his Sky interview, Mr Jenrick had tried to explain the situation by saying the pilot was not just available to politicians but was also being used by Border Force and the Transport for London.

He added that it was not a free pass but 'means that they can conduct important government business but they won’t be able to go out socialising or meet other friends and family, so they have to limit their contact with other people as much as they possibly can.'

Under questioning from Trevor Phillips he said: 'This is a pilot that is actually being used by around 20 organisations so hundreds, if not thousands, of public sector staff who work in those organisations will be able to use this pilot. 

'We’ll be learning from it and of course, if it is possible to roll it out more broadly because it is proven

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